77-year-old man in jail for molesting minor girl dies

Ghaziabad: A 77-year-old man, who was in judicial custody since December 25 after he allegedly molested a minor girl inside the lift of a highrise in Indirapuram, died in a government hospital in Ghaziabad on Thursday. The accused, Vasu Bhargava, had been booked on a complaint lodged by the parents of a minor girl, a Class III student.

Bhargava had been lodged at Dasna jail after his arrest. Jail authorities rushed him to MMG Hospital on Thursday afternoon when his health condition deteriorated. He died during treatment at the hospital.

“The patient was gasping for breath and had no pulse when he was brought to the hospital. We tried to revive him in the emergency ward but were unsuccessful despite our efforts. The exact cause of death will be ascertained from the post-mortem report,” hospital superintendent Ravinder Rana told TOI.

Bhargava had been living with his family in a third-floor rented apartment in a highrise in Indirapuram for the past seven years. As per the FIR registered at Indirapuram police station, the molestation took place on the afternoon of December 24. Bhargava had entered a lift in which the minor girl and a friend of hers were going to their respective flats after playing in the housing society’s compound. The girl had rushed home and complained to her grandmother about being touched inappropriately inside the lift. The FIR had been registered under sections 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) and 354B (use of criminal force to disrobe a woman) of IPC apart from relevant sections of POCSO Act, 2012.

Bhargava’s family members told TOI that he had

dementia

after he met with an accident nearly five years ago. “He used to forget things. When inside a lift, he used to keep on pressing buttons irrespective of the floor to which he intended to go. For the past five days in the jail, his health condition had been constantly deteriorating. But even after multiple requests, he was not taken to a private hospital or the district government hospital,” his 44-year-old son, Vishal, told TOI.

Jail authorities said Bhargava had been admitted to prison with previous history of dementia and hypertension. “The undertrial prisoner had been admitted to the jail hospital ever since he was sent here on December 25 and good care was being taken of his health. He had met his family members at the jail on Thursday till which point of time his health condition was not serious. He fainted when he returned to the barracks after the meeting. We had rushed him to the MMG Hospital after that,” jail superintendent Dadhiram Maurya told TOI.